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OPINION

Guest opinion: We question the decision-making of the Lee County commission

Special to The News-Press
Published 7:33 p.m. ET March 26, 2020 | Updated 9:34 a.m. ET March 28, 2020

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How many people in Lee County have to be infected for our county commissioners to take action? How many have to die?

According to the Wall Street Journal (“Intensive-Care Bed Shortage Looms,” March 25), Fort Myers is near the bottom in having intensive-care unit beds per 100,000 people over the age of 60 (57 beds for every 100,000 residents over 60. The average health system has 116 beds per 100,000 residents aged 60+.) The average health system has 116 beds). So right off, we have a problem if this coronavirus contagion gets out of hand in our county.

Instead, our commissioners dither in making critical decisions and in so doing trivialize life and death of our citizens by refusing to issue a stay-at-home order at its emergency meeting last Wednesday or taking the more moderate step of having nonessential businesses close – or even discuss the request by the Collier County Commission that Lee and Collier join together to ask Gov. Ron DeSantis to allow them to issue a stay-at-home order.

Notwithstanding the “emergency” nature of the meeting, the commissioners decided to put off any stay-at-home order, perhaps the most effective action they can take to control community spread. And it was unclear as to what, if any, contingency plan to address Covid-19 has been developed to address the pandemic. If there is one, can the BoCC kindly share it with us? Lee Health presented its projections to avoid a triage situation in which they will have to decide who lives and who dies once our health system is overrun with patients and the commissioners turned a blind eye to its appeal.

What did we hear from our commissioners? We heard that the problem is with people coming from northeastern states and now we are going to ask them to voluntarily quarantine when they arrive at our airport. We heard one commissioner talk only about 65+ as the age group in jeopardy. We heard that Lee County is going to be marketing to the Northeast region advising people that “…now is not the time to visit Florida.” We heard that our commissioners do not know what are essential versus nonessential businesses and they haven’t contacted other counties to see how they are handling stay-at-home orders. And we heard the fear-mongering that crime and suicide is going to go up if we people become desperate as a result of a stay-at-home order.

What our esteemed commissioners did: they decided to wait until Monday to have another meeting and they are going to count people in the parks to see if residents are listening to their stay-at-home advice. Meanwhile, Covid-19 cases are increasing exponentially every two days. Again, how many positive cases does Lee County have to report before they take action?

We understand and empathize with those small businesses and their workers who are suffering. But what will be the outcome should we not do anything? While encouraging us to all stay home, what if one needs a haircut? Or maybe wants to have their nails done? What about shopping for furniture? What about watching a tennis match? There are many nonessential businesses open inviting customers in. Will more die? We know what we have to do and we need responsible government.

This guest opinion column was written by the steering committee for Women For a Better Lee, Connie Bennett-Martin, Bobbie D'Alessandro, Charlotte Newton and Mary Watford